I recently had a bad experience with Jayride, and I am posting to warn others.

About a day and a half in advance I booked an airport transfer with Jayride.com (JFK-EWR). The price was reasonable, and they offered a direct transfer with supershuttle. I received an email confirmation.

Arriving at JFK, I contacted supershuttle: they had no record of any reservation in my name, and the confirmation and order numbers from Jayride were not in their records.
I then tried to contact Jayride several times - nothing.... the "24-hour support" hotline was dead.
I booked my own transfer, and sent an angry mail to Jayride customer support. About a day later, I got this response:

G'day **** ,

Thanks for booking your airport transfer on Jayride.
Unfortunately, Supershuttle were unable to service your booking due to operational reasons.
.......
We are issuing a full refund for you right away, sorry about the inconvenience.

SO, thank you Jayride for refunding payment for services you failed to provide, BUT I had a confirmed booking for an airport transfer ! And Jayride (and supershuttle ?) knew about this - they had my details (US phone number, email) - ZERO communication. And finally, instead of admitting they screwed up, a laconic "well, these things happen" response.

So, BEWARE if you plan to use Jayride. If you do decide to book with them, double-check with them, and with the supplier, the day before.
Or best yet, book with a company that takes its business seriously.

D.

Thanks for the heads-up.

I am a bit confused as to why you believe supershuttle knew you had a confirmed booking.

Was the fare cheaper than a direct booking? I always try to go directly to the source, bypassing any "booking agent" in situations like this.

I am moving this thread over to the Ride Services Forum.
Please follow there...
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

Why would anyone use an Australian company to book a Super Shuttle between two New York City (sort of) airports? Check a couple of review sites and you will see that your experience is the standard.

As a general matter stick with CPRich's advice. Always go directly to the vendor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CPRich

Thanks for the heads-up.

I am a bit confused as to why you believe supershuttle knew you had a confirmed booking.

Was the fare cheaper than a direct booking? I always try to go directly to the source, bypassing any "booking agent" in situations like this.

I have no way of knowing whether supershuttle knew about the booking, which is why I wrote that as a question.
I couldn't find any direct booking for that route, without a stop, barring jayride.


Why would you use Orbitz to book a flight in Italy ? A company can provide international service without being based in the destination country...

True, many think you should go directly to the vendor. I don't, and I do not accept that you have to assume you will get worse service - in some cases the opposite has been true. A consolidator (or any other operator) can and often does have fares and services (and leverage) you as an individual have no access to.

Jayride does have a mixed bag of reviews - but not overwhelmingly so and no worse than many other companies I've had positive experiences with.

I don't think Jayride is really relevant to this forum, which addresses e-hail-based ground transportation systems.

Jayride seems to just be another site through which you can book traditional ground transportation.

Are they just a third party broker?

This answers the question. SuperShuttle does not offer the non-stop service between JFK & EWR. That is a good clue that when some third party tells you that you can book the service through them, that it simply is not going to happen. Why? Because the person physically driving the vehicle isn't going to do it.

As to Orbitz. Same thing. Why on earth book through Orbitz when you can book through the carrier? There must be a thousand horror stories on FT alone from people stranded in places around the globe with two air carriers and some OTA all pointing various fingers at each other as to why nobody is responsible for whatever it is that has gone wrong.

I'm not suggesting that there aren't exceptions to this. But, all things being equal or close to equal, nothing beats dealing directly with the service provider.

In many cases all things are NOT equal or close to equal.... For those "thousand" horror stories there are tens of millions of satisfied customers who do not post any stories. I have also had on occasion better service from the third party than from the supplier (when problems did arise).

Most third parties I have dealt with have been reliable - very rarely have I had screw-ups like this happen, which is why I try to publicize them when they do.

The point here I feel is being missed. There may have been an error somewhere along the line, there may have been a miscommunication, but the bottom line is that the third party (Jayride) knew they cold not provide the service and did not communicate this - this is the part that is inexcusable.

I work for Supershuttle.

Any booking through a third party vendor like Jayride may not mean we have an actual reservation in our system. Most travel companies like Orbitz, Travelocity, RideFly, etc send you a voucher to use as payment for the ride upon arrival. That is all you paid for. They don't make reservations in the system for you and usually tell you that you must call to make reservations.

They also send you links and tell you to print the vouchers to give the drivers upon boarding. Without this physical voucher, the driver and the company do not get paid as we have to send this voucher to the travel company for Supershuttle to be paid. You will be refused service without the physical voucher. Please remember that most of the Supershuttle Drivers either are Supershuttle Franchisees or work for them.

Supershuttle has it's own website and Phone App that allows you to book directly with them and if you book roundtrips, a discount is automatically given. It also allows you to check in at the airport upon arrival to push your place in line up in front of others who maybe walk up customers.

Prices are determined by distance from the airport using zip codes and the type of service selected. Some services are not available at every airport based on the airports restrictions on service provided. As stated above, JFK-EWR service may not have been available because JFK may have contracted with another company to provide that service. I don't work in NY Metro area, so I am not aware of the restrictions in place.

So as the OP had posted, if you use a third party vendor, it is best to call the actual provider to make sure they have you set up with a reservation.

Website and phone numbers withheld as to meet TOS. This is not a promotional post, just an explanation as to how it works.

This thread has been moved into the New York City destination forum.

Prospero
Senior Moderator

Not sure if you're in NYC now but if so, welcome! You learned a painful lesson about going the 3rd party route especially in a city in which you can EASILY get public transportation when you land either via taxi, car service, bus, or rail.

The next time you travel to a city foreign to you, go to its respective Flyertalk forum in advance and do a search about ground transportation options. If you don't see your question answered, start a thread and I'm sure you'll get the information and advice from other FT members.

+1 on this response. Most in local NYC would prevent you from booking any shared shuttle service as much more convenient and cheaper options available between your destination. If traveling alone you could accomplish the same trip via public transportation for $24.
Applause for giving post-trip summary to prevent others from encountering your ordeal. Welcome to NYC even if it was just a transit connection.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"If traveling alone you could accomplish the same trip via public transportation for $24."

If one has more time than money, JFK-EWR can be done for less than $8 with Metrocard -- but the trip would take about three hours.

Um, putting aside issues people may have with Orbitz, the MAJOR difference is that Orbitz is an accredited travel agency using a global reservations system.

Jayride is....what exactly?